Wicked Little Letters: Sharp Period Piece Carries Timeless Feminist Message

By Liz Braun

Rating: B+

Food for thought is in there under the laughs in Wicked Little Letters. And that food for thought is a sharp feminist message. But you know how all that works — a spoonful of sugar, etc, etc.

Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley star in this ribald black comedy about small-town gossip. The film is based on an actual scandal that rocked the village of Littlehampton in 1920, when someone began sending anonymous poison-pen letters to several residents. Among the recipients was a pious local woman named Edith Swan (Colman).

Suspicion fell on Swan’s next-door neighbour Rose Gooding (Buckley), mostly because Rose was known to drink and carouse and generally thumb her nose at the social conventions of the day.

Wicked Little Letters kicks into gear just as the prim spinster Edith receives her 19th anonymous letter full of filthy language and accusations of sexual impropriety. It so distresses Edith’s mother (Gemma Jones) and father (Timothy Spall) that it’s decided the police must become involved.

It’s not long before Rose is arrested for sending the terrible letters, even though there is no hard evidence to connect her to the hand-written missives.

Offended to see a woman jailed without proof, Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan) — the only female copper in town — decides to do some investigating on her own.

With the help of some other local women, Gladys sets up a sting operation to find out who’s really sending the letters. What’s eventually revealed — along with the villain — are the racism, misogyny, and faultfinding hypocrisy of the era.

Directed by Thea Sharrock and written by Jonny Sweet, Wicked Little Letters is a broad and funny period piece, and it sparkles with sharp dialogue.

It’s also a little heartbreaking in its depiction of the many ways women are judged, shamed, and kept down by the concerted efforts of society in general.

Fairly shocking how little has changed in the last 100 years. Wicked Little Letters had its world premiere at TIFF 2023.

Wicked Little Letters. Directed by Thea Sharrock. Starring Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley. Opens April 5 in Toronto (Varsity & Varsity VIP), Vancouver (Fifth Avenue) and Montreal, expanding April 12 (Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, Victoria and more) and throughout the spring in other cities.